'Princess and the Pea' boasts youth cast, director

Sunday

Jun 18, 2017 at 4:00 AM

By Tami Mosser Staff Writer

ORRVILLE -- Youth theater involves young actors, but the Orrville Community Theater is taking its summer production one step further.

Sixteen-year-old Andrew Butcher, a Rittman High School student and veteran of OCT, is directing the theater's Rising Stars' staging of Pat Rosenthal's adaptation of "The Princess and the Pea." Opening night is Saturday at 7, with a matinee performance the next day at 2:30. Tickets are $5 reserved and $7 at the door. For ticketing information, go to www.orrvillecommunitytheater.org.

"I wanted to expand the (Rising Stars) program," said Staci Gardner, who has conducted youth theater productions in Orrville for the past few years. Knowing Butcher was interested, she offered to make him student director, while she would retain her position as director.

"I saw how good his ideas were and I said, 'why don't you run with it'?" Gardner said. "He's surpassed all of my expectations."

Butcher said he knew from the time he first participated in OCT in 2015 that he wanted a chance to try directing. Though he had no say in what script he would be handed, "The Princess and the Pea" has been a very enjoyable experience. The cast of 10 are all 12 years old and younger, so they already look up to him as someone older.

"They're doing pretty well with it," said Butcher. "I try to keep them laughing and happy."

Gardner still sits in on rehearsals and often is pulling costumes and set pieces from storage, but she keeps an eye on what's going on on stage and said Butcher is doing a good job keeping the cast focused and under control. "They listen," she said, "but I also started out with, 'If Andrew is talking or if I am talking, you need to be listening'."

In the future, Gardner said, she'd like to keep expanding off-stage opportunities for Rising Stars participants. "If they want to do lights and sound, I'm more than happy to start doing that," she said.

And while Butcher said, "directing kind of felt like what I wanted to do," it is not all he wants to do. He still wants to be on stage, not only as an actor. Butcher also plays guitar and piano.

Reporter Tami Mosser can be reached at 330-287-1655 or tmosser@the-daily-record.com. She is @tamimosser on Twitter.